Texas Prisons

I’m on lock during the month of Ramadan because I’m Muslim and I’m fasting. I’ve written grievances (I-60s) to Warden Vondra, the head Warden, and to Warden Clark concerning the Ramadan service for the Muslims on Ferguson Unit. Isn’t it some type of violation for them to lock us down during the month of Ramadan? It started on 18 June 2015 [reported 7 July 2015].

They also have violated the right for us taking showers too because they have exceeded the limitation of 72 hours between shower access. While we have been on lockdown for the Muslims who are fasting we have been getting regular Johnnys along with the rest of the unit. It seems like they want us to break our fast and they don’t bring us no type of cold water or nothing else to eat when our fast is broken. I feel that is wrong and the Muslims are being discriminated on Ferguson Unit. When we are on lockdown the Christians get to go to their service without any question being asked. I’m asking if I can get some type of help on this matter.

After reading ULK 43 I decided to write for the cause. Seeing the article “Denied Recreation in Ad-Seg” written by a Texas prisoner made me want to expound on the same issues and expose the injustice in Texas prisons as a whole. From general population to Ad-Seg we all take the unfair shake of the hand; from the food on most units, to the disciplinary system, to the grievance system setup, to segregation placement and release. It’s all kangaroo! And the chance for changing this seems highly unlikely. The “new” Willie Lynch and Jim Crow still has the masses blind, programmed and divided.

On this unit there are only two grievance investigators yet neither knows any answers to questions about grievances. Some grievances I’ve filed that have substantial evidence against officers or the system take 90 days to “investigate” and/or come up lost. Others come back with such a general response, it doesn’t address the issues grieved. I have over ten grievances with the same response!

There’s no need to really comment on the disciplinary system. Anyone who’s ever caught a case knows how that turns out 99% of the time. I’ve never understood how the substitute counsel is supposed to be here to help us prisoners in such a matter when they are employed by the same agency that employs the captain who will find you guilty.

All of the conditions for management and release can be found in the Administrative Segregation Plan in the law library, signed by Director Rick Thaler on 6 March 2012. A lot of us are in segregation for some b.s., and once here they keep us here against policy with lame reasons or some non-violent infraction which has nothing to do with segregation placement anyway. Here are a few helpful things listed in the Administrative Segretation Plan.

I. Definitions A. At no time shall administrative segregation be used as punishment for misconduct. Punishment of an offender shall be assessed and imposed only pursuant to the provisions of the rules governing disciplinary procedures.

6. Recommendations for Release B. General Procedures
   1. The ASC may make recommendations to the SCC [State Classification Committee] for removal of an administrative segretation offender from administrative segregation who is between routine SCC reviews.
   2. When considering the release of an administrative segregation offender to the general population, the SCC shall base the decision on whether the offender would still be:
   a. A current escape risk;
   b. A physical threat to staff or other offenders;
   c. A threat to the order and security of the prison as evidenced by repeated, serious disciplinary violations
   

To all of us in the struggle I just want to say keep your head high and strong. Learn the rules and know the game.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This author’s experience shows that prisoncrats don’t have to follow their own rules for responding to grievances, just like they don’t need any substantive justification for torturing individuals for years. There are many who spend their time and energy trying to improve the protections for prisoners by enhancing prison rules. We can use this tactic to our advantage to make space for our organizing, but ultimately we wonder what’s the big picture? The anecdote above is just one small example of the role of social control of Amerikkkan prisons which has been blatant for decades. And prison reformers have been trying to for decades improve these same prisons’ conditions, while doing nothing to dismantle the economic system which requires oppression of groups over other groups. Prisons are a manifestation of that hierarchy, and capitalism is the economic system that we must destroy.

When the U.S. border patrol concocted a plan in 2005 with the help of George W. Bush called “Operation Streamline” the idea was to get tough on immigration by arresting and prosecuting those who crossed the border, instead of simply deporting them or placing them in a civil detention center. According to a report by the Bureau of Justice (BOJ) more than 80% of immigrant defendants received a prison sentence.(1) This punishment was for crossing an imaginary line into territory that was, before the battle of Alamo, their country’s land. If one looks at it from the side of someone who crosses illegally, held up to 15 months in jail, one must ask what the hell is going on with this new prison system. According to the BOJ statistics the more than 60,000 people convicted of immigration crimes in 2014-15 were primarily found guilty of one of two things: “illegal entry” or “illegal re-entry.”

In Texas, where many arrests are taking place, it is costing the state $270/day to house immigrants, not including food. That’s $98,550 a year! Former Attorney General Eric Holder announced reforms to the nation’s drug sentencing laws in an attempt to reduce the number of federal prisoners held on non-violent offenses, but these actions are not tackling the bigger picture. The expanding pool of new prisoners has meant steady business for the two largest U.S. private prison corporations. Last year, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) received 30% of its revenue from federal contracts with the U.S. Marshall Service and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), a total of $546 million. The GEO group received more than 25% of its revenue for a total of $384 million and four of the CCA’s board’s senior executives are former BOP employees. In Pearsall, Texas, there is a jail that can house up to 1,800 men at any one time, sleeping up to 100 on iron bunks in dormitories. This isn’t a traditional jail, but a piece of land surrounded by fences topped by razor wire and run by the GEO group.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of new senate immigration legislation estimated that

“the additional prosecutions under the bill would lead to an increase in incarceration costs totaling about $1.6 billion over the 2014-2023 period … Those costs would stem from the increased number of individuals prosecuted, the change in sentencing guidelines, and the rate of conviction. … Implementing the legislation would increase the prison population by about 14,000 inmates annually by 2018. The total additional costs to detain, prosecute, and incarcerate offenders would total $3.1 billion over the 2014-2023 period…”(2)

In Arizona, three privately run jails have contracts that require 100% occupancy. The main incentive for private prisons is to make money and they lobby politicians to keep it that way. The United $tates is a country where private corporations profit from “lockup quotas.” So in the eyes of capitalism “Operation Streamline” is full steam ahead.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Private prisons are indeed cashing in on national oppression in the United $tates. And the use of prisons to target migrants is a key component to the imperialists’ efforts to keep the borders closed and hoard wealth for Amerikan citizens. Defining the act of crossing an imaginary line in pursuit of a safer environment or a higher wage as illegal and requiring imprisonment is just one more way that the Amerikan criminal injustice system ensures a system of social control over oppressed people within U.$. borders. And the private prisons have found a way to turn a system that is inherently built on taking a financial loss (the government has to subsidize prisons as they do not make enough money from prisoner labor to run themselves) into a profitable enterprise for imperialist parasites. Sadly, there is no problem filling these prison quotas, as the criminal injustice system shows no sign of cutting back on what has become the largest imprisonment country per capita in the world. We have written before about the private prisons economic push to lock up more migrants.(1) And in response to these conditions, more recently we have seen some migrant prisoner protests.(2) In the end we won’t be able to defeat this system of national oppression against migrants and all oppressed nations without dismantling imperialism itself. Imperialism depends on closed borders to ensure luxury for a few at the expense of the rest of the world.

I found a copy of Under lock & Key 39 and saw that right here in Texas concentration camps there are likeminded brothers struggling in other facilities in the same predicaments. Resist! Resist! Don’t get discouraged! I am among you and our numbers are slowly growing.

This very morning I got the various gangs to quit talking bullshit by speaking to my likeminded neighbor about what I’ve read and studied from ULK 39. These white gang members normally talk over me and try to drown me out, but my voice is loud and I want to be heard by all; Black, Brown, Red, and white. Everyone finally got quiet and me and my neighbor talked. For about 45 minutes we talked about organized prison protests in California, of the 30,000 prisoners hunger strike, and the fact that in Texas you can’t get more than two to agree to do it and they give up after commissary.

Then a Mexican brother got into our conversation and told me about MIM and MIM(Prisons). I told him I had found ULK 39 in my cell. He said it was his and they move him around every two weeks because he’s a “threat to security.” He then shot me ULKs 38 and 37, several Prison Action News publications, and the Texas petition to have our grievances addressed! I’ve been doing something similar for several years. It’s really helped a few people out. There is a right way and a wrong way to write step one and step two grievances. It’s the most asinine case I’ve ever run across, but if you use their own game rules against them most times you prevail. There are small victories. They just circumvent new policies with bogus practice.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The Texas activist pack is available to anyone in Texas who wants guidance on fighting to get grievances heard, and it also includes information on how to fight the medical copay as well as the restriction on indigent mail supplies. Just write to us for a copy. It’s a big packet of information so if you can send a donation to cover the cost of printing and mailing, that would help us send more lit to other prisoners in need!

“Religion is what keeps the poor from killing the rich.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

It seems Napoleon had a firm understanding of the opiate of the masses. Imperialism has been using religion as a tool of oppression for hundreds of years. It isn’t any less apparent today inside the U.S. prison systems. In some cases, units offer 2-3 times as many religious classes as educational courses.

Most religions, especially Judeo-Christian ones, champion punishment, often unjustly, under the reasoning of “because I say so.” There’s no objective investigating, and nothing is circumstantial. This propaganda is flooded into the prison system to create the mindset that prisoners are bad people and do not belong in society. This also helps the people in the free world who do not see us as deserving of human rights. So they allow the imperialistic oppression to continue. Criminals shouldn’t be punished, they should be rehabilitated.

They claim Jesus once said to “turn the other cheek.” Pacifists rarely enact change. Religions for the most part promise a better afterlife which gets people to overlook and ignore what’s going on here and now. They preach that if you sit on your hands and keep your mouth shut, it will be better after you are gone. I’m sure the imperialist pigs have no qualms about expediting your departure. Amerika loves this “shut up and take it” mentality; it’s what the country was founded on. Every day, I see prisoners take verbal and physical abuse from the institution and do nothing because they are “trying to be good Christians.”

The lumpen need to take off the blindfolds placed on their eyes by the church, synagogue, or mosque and realize materialism is the vehicle to a better life of freedom. Meaning true freedom from oppression in this current life they’re living, not down the road after they’re dead.

I’m writing because I feel I’m not receiving the right treatment. I have stated this to the doctors and therapists here but the mental health staff don’t care. I’ve been suffering from major depression since I was 12 years old, after I was molested by my mother’s boyfriend. I’ve attempted suicide in the past; most recently was April 14. I had to be sent out to the hospital. I’ve been on life support twice. For the last 10 years I’ve been in and out of the hospital for suicide attempts.

The staff don’t give a damn about what happens to us prisoners. This is supposed to be a mental health unit to help prisoners with their mental illness, but University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) does nothing at all to help. And the warden knows what’s going on. A few months ago a prisoner killed himself and nothing happened. I’ve had nurses tell me they don’t care if I kill myself. I’ve written grievances about the matter, and I’ve also written to senator John Whitmire and the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Brad Livingston. I’m not receiving any kind of treatment I feel I should be getting. I’ve asked for a new therapist and doctor. I’ve written the clinic director Dr. Farley, and Dr. Khawaja.

I’ve been having a lot of problems with my therapist (Mr. Dalazrer). Other prisoners and I have filed numerous complaints against him. I filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. He came to my cell door and stated if I wanted to get off psych and be able to come out of my cell I would show him my penis, so I filed a complaint. I wrote to the Ombudsman office, and the Inspector General Investigations Department. I tried talking to the warden. I filed the complaint on May 8, and it was complete on May 21. Nothing was done. Mr. Salazar has continued to come to my cell door. I feel very uncomfortable around him. On May 21 UTMB and the warden Comstock had a meeting with Mr. Salazar. Then on May 22 I was told I was being discharged from the mental health unit. I was told by a staffpersyn that I can continue to write to who I want, but that nothing would happen to Mr. Salazar.

Since I started filing complaints on Mr. Salazar and Dr. Patel they have retaliated against me by continuing to place me on psych cell, where I am on a “behavior management plan” and I can’t come out my cell. Mr. Salazar has stated that if I don’t talk to him, he will place me on psych cell. The reason I was placed on this behavior management plan was because I wrote a letter to my family explaining how I felt and the type of treatment I was receiving. I haven’t engaged in any aggressive behavior to be placed on the behavior plan. They have prisoners here who throw things on officers and medical staff, have uses of force, and get disciplinary cases and nothing is done to them. This is only retaliation. Once you’re placed on this plan all your property is taken for a period of time. None of this is right. I have had an organization called “Inmate Assistance League” here in Texas contact a Dr. Penn in Huntsville Texas about this matter. But nothing was ever done.

I refuse to give up. I found out at visit from my brother that he hasn’t been receiving my mail about the complaints I’ve filed. I will appreciate any kind of help you can give at this time, cause things is at its limit. The mental health system here in Texas is not good at all. I would like to request a subscription to ULK.

Imperialism is the ravenous cancer eating away the body of humynkind. Karnes Detention Center in Texas is owned and operated by slimy fungi in the guise of humyns known as GEO group. And GEO group is Amerikkkan kkkapitalists feeding at the table of suffering like worms eating the insides of defenseless infants.

Karnes Detention Center (KDC) is one of the hundreds of torture chambers housing lumpen who are labelled “Illegal Immigrants” by the Amerikkkan elitists. Housed at KDC are mothers and their children. They have no criminal backgrounds. All came to amerikkka because of persecution in their native lands. Persecution often caused by amerikkkan kkkapitalist intervention in the domestic affairs of those lands.

At KDC one lawyer reports seeing many children with persistent cough. The children complained of no medical care and lack of edible food. A three-year-old girl with asthma was told to “drink water” when her mother sought treatment for her.

The food was pre-packaged and expired. Rotted and beyond use. The lawyer brought cookies for them from a vending machine. One sad looking girl held hers but did not eat. When the lawyer asked her, the tiny child said, “I will share mine with mommy.” It was then noticed that none of the children ate cookies until they could share with their mothers.

KDC exists because of an executive order signed by united snakes president Obama. He reminds me of a “house nigger.” You know, the “smart one” who looked after “Massa’s affairs,” and slept in “Massa’s house?” The one who kept massa informed of dem dumb field niggas jes in case dey was a plottin’ and schemin’. House nigger don’t care that his “privilege” stands on the backs of bleeding filed workers. Chief Pig Obama and GEO Group stock holders get tax money for crushing undocumented children and their mothers.

Now we could discuss Obama’s overwhelming and extensive use of military drones to kill innocent families in Third World nations. We could discuss how house nigger plans to sell drones to other countries to enable those countries to do “operations” that are illegal for the u.$ to perform. Or we could discuss Judge Gideon of Dewitt Town Court in New York. He issued an Order of Protection for Colonel Earl Evans. Colonel Evans is commander of Hancock Field where weaponized Reaper Drones are remotely piloted to make lethal strikes in Afghanistan. These cowardly amerikkkans fire missiles and kill innocent Afghani mothers and children from a cozy office across half a continent and an ocean from the victims. Slaughter without risk.

But Colonel Evans was granted an Order of Protection. He lives on a military base surrounded by soldiers with massive weaponry who are trained and ready to defend Colonel Evans. He needs an Order of Protection because he wants “protection” from peace activists who stand outside the base protesting drone warfare. And then Judge Gideon jails those activists for violating that Order of Protection, circumventing the First Amendment of the united snakes constipation.

Odd but I hear that old tune “London Bridge is Falling Down,” but the word “Amerikkka” replaces “London Bridge.” May the piece of shit soon implode. Maybe then the Afghanis can get an Order of Protection.

I am writing to add on to the article that you ran in the January/February 2015 edition of Under Lock & Key, titled “Texas Hides Grievance Manual.” Frank Hoke also has it that once you sign in to the law library, we are not allowed to leave and go to the bathroom the entire session. If we do go, we have to put everything up, leave our legal material in the law library, go to the restroom, and when we come back we have to sit by the door doing nothing until count clears. We have not been able to find this in any directive and since we cannot find it or it is not listed in the new January 2015 edition of the Offender Orientation Handbook (of which I have the only copy on this unit, since my family printed it off the TDCJ website). We are going to fight it since this policy is denying us our access to the courts. Also in the new orientation handbook, it states that the law library is to be open for one session on Saturdays, and this does not happen. I am going to work on that since it denies us access to the courts.

I’m writing because here in Texas the legislature or some “committee” got the bright idea to forbid prisoners the ability to purchase stationary materials (writing paper, typing paper, envelopes of all kinds, and carbon paper) from outside vendors. This really is felt by those who do legal work and those who refuse to support this state. We are now obligated to further support it by purchasing stationary from commissary.

Before this rule was adopted and enforced, one could purchase stationary items from the outside. This was especially good while on a unit lockdown when one needed paper (especially in litigation), because one could do an outside purchase and still get the paper. On a unit lockdown all movement comes to a halt! No commissary, nothing. So no commissary, no paper.

Now, of course, this system has a rule where after seven days on a lockdown one can use the state’s “indigent” process, even having funds in one’s account. But what the rule states, and what the indigent supply supervisor (usually the law library supervisor) does, are two different things. Let’s say it’s a four week lockdown. So the first week is “free” or s/he doesn’t have to worry about filling out stationary requests. Then week two comes along and all those requests come in. Now the supervisor claims that there’s “too many” requests and can’t get around to sending the requester their “assigned” indigent supply envelope (ISE). There goes week two, with no paper. Now, each building has their “assigned” request day so this wise ass stupid-visor knows which day is the building’s request day. S/he then sends the ISE on the day that the requests are to be made – there goes week three. Week four, you finally make your request, but you come off lockdown, with no supplies sent, and you haven’t written in a whole month. Then you have to wait to go to the store.

By the time any grievance is heard the stupid-visor now has his goons kicking down your door searching all your “legal work” under the guise of “probable cause” of written contraband, but really it’s retaliation. After all your shit has been ransacked and possibly stolen, in the end you’ve been fucked good with no claim upon which relief can be granted.

eCommDirect usually allows people on the outside to purchase commissary items for prisoners, but they are not allowed during a lockdown. And if you’re in a custody level of what’s known in Texas as a G-4 or closed custody there are no eComms allowed any time anyway.

So what does the system do to stop you if you’re a writ writer? Make you a G-4 or closed custody. And you can be disciplined for anything! The way the rule reads, an open bag of chips is “contraband” cause it’s not as you bought it! Everyone with a little sense will know that the prison system disciplinary process is only a means of control.

MIM(Prisons adds: Beyond just the disciplinary process inside prisons, the entire prison system, from denial of writing materials, to long-term isolation, is set up for social control. There’s nothing rehabilitative or corrective about the Amerikan criminal injustice system. Denial of paper and envelopes is a clever way for Texas to try to stop people from using the grievance and legal system to address injustices. It is no surprise that many prisoners turn to physical violence when all other avenues are cut off. But in the face of this increased repression we call on all prisoners to come together, build unity and peace and join a broader movement to fight both these specific injustices and the broader imperialist system. United we can have an impact and build for revolutionary change!

We are placed back here in Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg) for being part of a security threat group (STG), a supposedly “confirmed” gang member. I was placed in Ad-Seg in 2002 for corresponding with other prisoners in another unit who were already confirmed. I got out of prison in 2004, and have just recently come back this past year, and once again I find myself placed in Ad-Seg even though I am not part of a gang. I have tried to write to the gang officers and even wrote a history report about my association in the past. I was told I would go to a G.R.A.D. program that’s designed for ex-gang-members. I have yet to hear anything.

During this time in Ad-Seg, we are supposed to receive an hour of exercise (recreation) per day. Well I have been here on this unit going on 6 months and have been to recreation only twice. I have written a Step 1 grievance only to be told that they would get to us when staff permitted. They claim to be under-staffed. But general population gets their daily recreation, and they have enough staff to allow them to shake our cells down every other day during showers. There are other units that are really under-staffed, yet their Ad-Seg blocks receive their hour of recreation. It’s sad because some of us need the exercise for medical reasons, and all of us need it for mental issues. Constantly in the cell all day every day is really a mind battle and a severe health issue.

MIM(Prisons) responds: In Under Lock & Key 41 we published many accounts of gang validation being used as a tool of social control. The STG designation is held over the heads of prisoners who are often among the most politically active, and then used as an excuse to isolate them from others. It is irrelevant to the prison administration whether or not these “confirmed” people actually affiliate with a criminal organization. And in some places, working with MIM(Prisons) is considered criteria for classifying people as a security threat. We publish accounts like this one to demonstrate the ongoing conditions of torture in these isolation programs, and the arbitrary use of the STG label. But in reality we do not trust the criminal injustice system to decide who is a threat to security; the biggest security threats are running the Amerikan government and its military and prison systems.